[center][b][color=7bcdc8]Xeviiy Sinclair[/color] [color=7ea7d8]Leon Athos[/color][/b] [b][color=f7976a]Coruscant[/color][/b][/center] The past few weeks had been quite hectic, reports of the Mandalorians continuing their attacks across different star systems, the latest, as far as they knew, being Feraxis. Not to mention the speech by the Padawan on the holo-feed causing an uproar for some of the Jedi, instilling the hunger for war, to defend the Republic, though it was quite obvious some of the younger Jedi just wanted to fight for glory and honor on the battlefield and the Council saw that. Xeviiy had been present with the Major and Lieutenant when the young Padawan had been giving a fiery speech, she’d be lying if she said it hadn’t had an effect on her, she felt a tad strange about it really, she was hungering a bit for battle, but at the same time, she also didn’t want to fight, she wanted glory yet peace. It was a strange conflict for her, two halves pushing against one another, [i]’War isn’t the answer, all life is sacred’[/i] One said in her thoughts for reason, [i]Death is the only way true peace can be had, those beasts must be crushed!’[/i] The other retorted, trying to justify her sense to go to war. No doubt a lot of Padawands and Knights were feeling this turmoil, though it seemed like others had a quick resolve, more towards the latter. It wasn’t until about two weeks later that everyone had been assigned to different parts of the galaxy, checking for Mandalorian attacks, or ensuring that if the Mandalorians did come, it wouldn’t be easy for them. Anna and Leon had been assigned with some Jedi, however as things were escalating over the past few weeks, Xeviiy was told to stay on Coruscant, but the inspiration from Aria’s message didn’t listen and she snuck herself on the ship with the other Jedi and Soldiers that were heading out. She’d be in trouble, but she was finally listening to what the masters had wanted, for her to fight and that’s what she didn’t understand, she was now ready to fight to defend those that needed defending, but the Council had now told her to wait, it didn’t make sense to her, isn’t this why she was taken to become a Jedi? To fight and protect the weak and innocent? It didn’t matter, she was here now and she was going to go through with it. Leon along with his Lieutenant Anna had been waiting patiently as everyone prepared for the trip, though he was still a military dog of the Republic, he still had his lightsaber on his waist, the familiarity of it having prevented him from putting it away once more. He didn’t really think he’d be using it though, he hadn’t used it since he was a Jedi, aside from when he sparred with Xeviiy, not to mention there were other capable Jedi, but it still was nice having the comfort of it with him. He saw two people approaching them, the woman he met once before, Arren Kae and the Padawan who had given her fiery speech, Aria. “Ah yes, Master Arren Kae was it?” He gave a gentle smile to the woman, though something felt off about her and the time before when they first met, but he just chalked it up to the adrenaline of war. He had been taken aback a bit by the woman that stepped forward, Aria sure was confident, that he could tell, “A pleasure to meet you, that was quite the speech you gave.” He responded as he extended his hand out, shaking her hand. Leon and Anna remembered the speech that Aria gave those short weeks back, it had inspired Anna and Leon to some degree, but he could also understand the Jedi’s plea for caution until the situation could be assessed; it was different for a soldier, they had to do what their superiors said, but the Jedi, he knew they didn’t believe in instilling force on their students and other members, perhaps that’s why it was so easy for some Jedi to answer the call to war with little repercussions of the current moment. Xeviiy moved through the crowd of Jedi and Soldiers that were there, she couldn’t believe she was going to be apart of something like this, she was nervous but that was quickly overtaken by excitement, she managed to spot Anna and Leon, as well as the Jedi Master that she had trained with and the woman from the holo-feed. She quickly made her way over to them, “Hey Leon, Anna, I’m here!” She shouted to them, Leon and Anna both glancing over to the other Padawan heading their way. “What are you doing here? I thought the Jedi forbade you from coming?” Anna asked her, shocked that she was here. “Oh, uh, yeah, you see...the Council thought I might be needed for...for my healing, yeah yeah, that’s it, for my healing.” She spoke, clearly stumbling to find a somewhat believable excuse. Leon smirked, giving off a small chuckle, “Uh-huh and did they know that they thought this before ‘sending’ you.” He spoke, giving air quotes on the sending part. Xeviiy giving off a mischievous grin in return, “Well I did say it to the through the door, perhaps very quietly, but if they couldn’t hear me, it’s their own fault.” She teasted. “Alright, well I don’t see the harm in you coming, but make sure you listen to what we say, this is serious and everyone needs to be at attention, okay?” Xeviiy gave a nod with a smile, glad that Leon wasn’t sending her back. “Major,” She said in a stern tone, “You know this isn’t a good idea, your superiors could get a lot of flak from the Jedi should she be discovered she tagged along with us and you know what that means for you.” He gave her an innocent smirk as though he didn’t know what she was talking about, “I don’t know what you mean Lieutenant, all I see is the people that are supposed to be here, if someone comes along that’s not supposed too, how am I to know without checking every single person?” She cocked an eyebrow whilst giving a look that said she didn’t believe him, Xeviiy stiffing a laugh with her had covering her mouth. “Very well Major, but don’t say I didn’t tell you so.” “Duly noted, Lieutenant.” He merely responded. Xeviiy soon turned her attention to Arren and Aria, she still wasn’t sure about Arren’s training methods, but they seemed to be effective for the most part, Aria though she was inspired by and bowed her head to her, “Hi, I’m Xeviiy, I have to say it’s quite impressive how you stood up to the Jedi Council, most Jedi would’ve been too nervous to do so, let alone inspire all these people to face the Mandalorian threat.” She said, clearly showing admiration for one of her peers. [hr] [center][b][color=a187be]Iri Asichi[/color][/b] [b][color=f7941d]Dantooine[/color][/b][/center] Iri had seen Aria give her speech, belittle the Council and whilst she could understand her need to protect people in the Republic, she didn’t condone how she had conducted herself, she didn’t like what the Jedi Council did sometimes, but she respected them and to insult them in such a way, well she felt it was brash and childish thing to do. She had been given the assignment to join Aria and the others on Cathar, she was one of the few Jedi to be assigned to this war, though her capacity was mostly to give updates and help keep the other Jedi in line, the battle hungry ones who couldn’t wait for their blades to meet fresh bodies, though she had a feeling if that was the next planet to be attacked, she’d be doing more than just being a bystandard, war was a messy business and she had been lucky enough to avoid it, the only closest thing being was when her master saved her and the other slaves and that had really just been a small battle. Whilst she was loading items she’d need for the trip onto a transport ship the Jedi were providing, Vras, Noka, Sanjun and Vrol were enacting their plan to join their teacher, Aria had inspired them as well and they couldn’t just sit by whilst others were fighting for the good of everyone and they were. They watched as their master went back and forth, taking supplies into the ship and then Vras used the force to knock over one of the supplies that was a few feet away from the ship, this grabbed her attention and she went over to investigate, giving the four of them the chance they needed to sneak aboard. “Huh, could’ve sworn I set that down properly, oh well, no sense in delaying.” Iri said to herself as she picked the item up. “Okay, go go go.” He whispered to them as he waved his hand, taking the back as they went up the loading ramp, just making it inside as Iri turned around to get the rest of the supplies in. The four of them found some supplies that provided enough ample cover for all of them to hide behind, their hearts were racing from excitement. “Okay guys, this is it, now we can’t be discovered, at least not until we make it to our destination, otherwise Master Iri will send us right back to Dantooine, understood? So we need to stay quiet.” Vras whispered to the other three. They all gave a nod, understanding the importance of it all and then within a few minutes, Iri finally boarded herself, the docking ramp closing behind her as she headed towards the cockpit, taking a seat as she pressed buttons and flipped switches, the shuttle rumbling as it powered up and then lifted up, it’s feet retracting in as it’s wings came out, taking off through the sky and soon, into space. Iri then punched in some coordinates into her nav computer, then seeing the stars stretch before her until she entered hyperspace. “Well, it’ll be a bit before I make it to Cathar, wonder if the other group from Coruscant will make it before me?” She spoke to herself before shrugging her shoulders, it didn’t really matter, they both had the same landing zone, so whether she got there first or not was irrelevant. [hr] [center][b][color=silver]Antares Solborne[/color][/b] [b][color=39b54a]Nar Shaddaa[/color][/b][/center] The streets of Nar Shaddaa were highly active as many people from many distant worlds were arriving as refugees, the Mandalorians made themselves public and were tearing a path of destruction out on the Outer Rim, causing many people to flee their homes and try and find safety and shelter elsewhere and no place was really better for that than Nar Shadda. It didn’t have many rules or regulations, well at least none that were really followed, it was a criminals paradise, either for getting lost or trying to avoid someone. A silver haired man had been walking through the streets, taking a path through the red light district, enjoying the view of women that were offering their ‘services’ as a companion for a night and as much as he would’ve liked to indulge in a night of debauchery, he had other plans, he was meeting with a group of representatives from the Exchange, knowing where the actual organization was, was almost impossible to track down, they certainly liked the shadows, then again, with an organization as large as theirs, no doubt people, namely the Republic would be on the look out for them. After going through various sections of the area, he eventually made it to a building, that seemed run down and abandoned on the outside, but after entering a code into a keypad, the door opened up, revealing a fairly nice looking room. Inside were five men, all making exchanges with one another, either payments or other matters, one of them happened to spot the silver haired rogue and he drew, not yet aiming it as he approached. “You got a lot of nerve showing up here after what you did Antares.” He growled. “Hey, I know things got a little heated between us, but I figured that was in the past and we could friends.” He gave a false smile, almost patronizing. He then pointed his blaster at him, “You ran off with the cargo you were supposed to deliver over on Taris, give me one reason why I shouldn’t blast you right now.” “Well if you did that, then I wouldn’t be able to give you my apology.” He smirked, pulling out a fairly large bag of credits, extending it out to the man. He took the bag, opening it, his eyes widening at the amount of credits that were there, much more than what the item to be ship cost, “Why are you giving us so many credits? Even with the interest that would be added on, it wouldn’t add up to this much.” He leered at him a bit. “Well I know how important that shipment was and I did feel bad about it, so I figured what was owed was enough, now should your boss get that, he wouldn’t have to know about the extra credits and that could go to whomever.” Antares spoke vaguely, clearly intending to be a bribe for the man. He smirked at Antares, “Well I’d say that your debt has been paid back in full.” “Glad to hear it Jesadr, now I was hoping we could discuss work, was wondering if you have anything for me.” He wrapped his arm around the man’s shoulder, heading over to a bar area with him. “You’re looking for work? You seem to have a lot of credits, I figured you’d be set and were just settling things with the Exchange.” Jesadr responded, still a little leery of the man’s intentions, though Antares had already played his hand, what he hadn’t said about the credits was they were stolen from the Hutts, so should they come after him, they’ll just be lead to the Exchange and they can kill each other rather than him. “Nope, the majority of my credits are there in that bag and I need some good paying work, got anything for me?” He simply responded as the bar droid served them drinks. “Well...we might have something, I’m sure you’ve heard the news of the Mandalorians attacking the outer rim?” “Yeah, what about them?” Antares asked as he took a sip of his drink, quirking an eyebrow. “Well someone wants an important item delivered to the Cathar system, they’re willing to pay big for it, sound like something you’d be up for?” Jesadr responded, taking a sip of his own drink. Antares grasped at his chin with his forefinger and thumb, pondering the job offer, “Well if I’m heading to a war zone, then I’ll want extra compensation for my efforts.” He smirked. “I would think running off with previous cargo would be enough.” Jesadr grinned back with an intense look on his face. “Well I clearly paid you back for that mistake, besides if you had anyone for this, you’d just be telling me to piss off, so clearly no one is willing to take this job, no one suicidal at least.” “And you think you can make this delivery rather than other people clearly more skilled at then you?” He retorted, taking another sip of his drink. “Well I have managed to get through battles that the Republic was in, I’m sure you’re familiar with some of them, so yes, I can, no one in the galaxy is a more skilled pilot than me.” Antares gave a determined smirk. “Fine, the job’s yours and you’ll get paid extra for this, the cargo can be found at docking bay seven, oh and another thing, don’t look inside the container, just take it to it’s destination.” He said as he finished his drink. Antares gave a lazy, two finger salute before he took his leave, heading to the docking area, “Hey six, take the ship to docking bay seven, got some cargo that needs to be delivered.” He spoke into a communicator, a droid responding back with various beeps in return before taking off with the ship and over to the docking area. The man was Antares Solborne, born on Alderaan and to a wealthy family, but that life didn’t fulfill him so he made his own as a smuggler, acquiring various debts over the years and burning and rebuilding a lot of bridges. If he didn’t know how to go after people’s desires, he probably would’ve been dead a long time ago, but his luck was still holding out, so that was good enough for him. As he made it to the docks, he found some droids guarding the shipment, the container was fairly big, but it would still fit in his ship. The ship in question happened to land nearby as he made his way over to the droids guarding the cargo, they quickly raising their weapons to him, ready to fire, “Easy now, I’m supposed to be delivering that.” He said as he raised his hands up, one of the droids using his built in communicator to confirm Antares’ story, they quickly got confirmation and then helped him load it onto his ship. He heard some rattling and banging going on in the container, but just figured it was an animal or something, that’s what it was a lot of the time, rich people wanting exotic pets. He soon started making his way to the cockpit as a small astromech droid rolled up beside him, making various beeps to him. “Oh, it’s just a delivery mission for the Exchange.” He responded as he took his seat, powering up his ship. The droid made more beeps that sounded like anger as it’s top spun and it shifted from one leg to the other repeatedly. “Yeah, I know I was in trouble with them the last time, but I squared things away and we need the credits, so get the hyperdrive ready, would ya?” The droid simply giving a low wooing noise, indicating that this wouldn’t end well, knowing his master and then went about calibrating the hyperdrive, the Crimson Phoenix soon taking off of Nar Shaddaa, entering hyperspace towards Cathar.